JMB

That's great that a chin strap worked for the OP! But I have a question... my problem is not necessarily with my chin falling, but with my tongue relaxing. That can (and does) happen even when my mouth is closed (tried taping, which I didn't like, but tried it anyway...). The air starts going into the mouth, and if my mouth is closed, it just inflated my cheeks (chipmunk cheeks). So, a strap doesn't help, nor does taping. What does one do it this case? (If you're going to say, "try a full face mask," well, I already did. The problem there is that it totally dries out my mouth, which can cause serious dental problems, so that's not a viable solution either...).

I'm asking in this thread and not starting my own because the title is good, and I want to help others who find it to get this information, too, that the OP had luck with a chin strap, but that that doesn't solve it for some of us. So, any suggestions?....

Thanks for replying. :)

I have no other charts to show (I have one other night, for a few hours, which is similar to this one), and I honestly can't deal with it anymore. I have tried higher settings, and it does not help. No matter what setting, I do not feel like I am getting enough air. It's very subtle, but my body knows. There are other issues as well, no need to go into. The point is that I maybe, possibly could get used to breathing with this thing after a matter of months, but given that I honestly don't know if I have apnea bad enough that it would help, I can't bring myself to continue putting myself through this hell (which is what it is in some ways).

Re: EPR. I experimented with it being off, as you suggested, and it just doesn't work for me at all. The only way I can tolerate the machine is if the EPR is at 3. And even then, the breathing is difficult and unnatural, and it's like putting a mountain between me and falling asleep. When I wake up, it is virtually impossible for me to go back to sleep with this thing on, which is why I only have a couple nights at a few hours, because after spending an hour in the middle of the night trying to fall asleep again with this horrible thing, I take it off and let myself fall back asleep.

Okay, well, I guess the bottom line is that I still have no real idea whether CPAP would help me with a problem that I'm not even sure is bad enough to warrant it. Thank you for your help, though. It is genuinely appreciated.

Long story short: unexplained fitful sleep. Sleep test revealed "very mild sleep apnea." But I know for a fact that two of the three "OAs" it flagged were while I was not yet asleep. Experimentation with CPAP also shows that a deep relaxing exhalation breath that lasts 10 sec will be (understandably, if mistakenly) flagged as an OA event. Bottom line: I'm just not convinced that I have bad enough apnea (if I really even have it at all) to warrant continuing to subject myself to CPAP, which is definitely hindering my sleep as much if not more than whatever I have that's causing my restless sleep/many arousals a night (it's likely not RLS, or narcolepsy...it's basically a mystery...).

Here is a screen shot of an event. It looks to me like something happened with the mask, and then my breathing/the machine goes wonky and then an OA event is flagged. It doesn't seem like a real OA event to me, but I was wondering how you more experience/knowledgeable folks interpret it?.....

(I've also included the only other OA event during that session, as well as a screen shot of a randomly chosen duration when nothing of note was going on, for comparison.)

I think so. It sounds like I'll need to do some experimenting. But, yes, I think I understand what you're saying. Thank you!

Sierra, why do you suggest to use EPR for Ramp Only?

Thanks for these suggestions! I think starting in the shallow end makes sense.

The main thing that's holding me back at this point is that, for example, I think I saw you mention on another thread, Sierra, that it took you "months" on CPAP before you could get good sleep using it? Sorry if I misrepresented what you said. But I'm just not so sure that it's a good thing to do to my body to deprive it of sleep/get even worse sleep than I normally do for even weeks, let alone months, for a treatment that might not actually help. A tough call.....

Oh, forgot...thanks for the tip about blower hours vs. therapy hours on a machine. What is considered to be low blower hours? How many blower hours should a ResMed AirSense 10 Autoset for Her last?

Thank you! I still have a lot to learn/research (big learning curve with CPAP), but if I move forward with this, I will almost certainly reach out for more help....

If I were to get a (used, low hour) ResMed AirSense 10 Autoset for Her, what settings would you recommend I start out with?

I do not really have awakenings, but arousals (which I don't remember). Insomnia is not my problem, thank goodness. And yes, I've checked and tried everything. Which is why I am looking into CPAP, which I really don't want to do....